King Lear essay, exploring the notion of hope.
“By considering the dramatic effects of King Lear, evaluate the view that despite the appalling suffering, the world of the play is not without hope.”
In the world of King Lear, being a shakespearean tragedy, suffering, loss, and injustice are all factors often expected before an audience enters the bottomless pit of complicated characters, varying agendas, and Shakespearean english these productions usually employed. However, despite its melancholy undertone and lack of warmer lighting gels on stage, King Lear is not without hope.
Shakespeare in Lear, presents the notion that characters in great authority force suffering upon others in an effort to retain power, admiration, and status. Initially, Lear himself demonstrates this, appallingly treating Cordelia with an irrational snap judgement when he is embarrassed in court by his youngest daughters silence and lack of praise; “Here I disclaim all my parental care.” (1:1:107) This unjust sentence is highly ironic, especially for the audience, as dramatically we see transparent farce of Gonerill and Regan’s dedications of love, and the total truth of Cordelia’s. Due to the “infirmity of his age” (1:1:284) (Lear) the unjust pain Cordelia endures for his mistake is greatened, and due to this dramatic irony the audience is forever hopeful for some form of justice and resolution to come.
Hope comes in many forms in King Lear, and at first arrives in the character of Kent. Like the audience, Kent is able to see the mistaken ways of Lear, and is the first to step in and address Cordelia’s suffering. “See better, Lear...Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least.” (1:1:146-153) In one dramatic interpretation of the play, Kent is positioned between Lear and Cordelia, symbolizing perhaps, a link between the mistaken mind of an old King, and the “more ponderous” (1:1:73) love of a young heir, furthermore acting as“the true blank of thine eye” (1:1:153) for his decrepit King. Kent brings the hope for justice to a
In the world of King Lear, being a shakespearean tragedy, suffering, loss, and injustice are all factors often expected before an audience enters the bottomless pit of complicated characters, varying agendas, and Shakespearean english these productions usually employed. However, despite its melancholy undertone and lack of warmer lighting gels on stage, King Lear is not without hope.
Shakespeare in Lear, presents the notion that characters in great authority force suffering upon others in an effort to retain power, admiration, and status. Initially, Lear himself demonstrates this, appallingly treating Cordelia with an irrational snap judgement when he is embarrassed in court by his youngest daughters silence and lack of praise; “Here I disclaim all my parental care.” (1:1:107) This unjust sentence is highly ironic, especially for the audience, as dramatically we see transparent farce of Gonerill and Regan’s dedications of love, and the total truth of Cordelia’s. Due to the “infirmity of his age” (1:1:284) (Lear) the unjust pain Cordelia endures for his mistake is greatened, and due to this dramatic irony the audience is forever hopeful for some form of justice and resolution to come.
Hope comes in many forms in King Lear, and at first arrives in the character of Kent. Like the audience, Kent is able to see the mistaken ways of Lear, and is the first to step in and address Cordelia’s suffering. “See better, Lear...Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least.” (1:1:146-153) In one dramatic interpretation of the play, Kent is positioned between Lear and Cordelia, symbolizing perhaps, a link between the mistaken mind of an old King, and the “more ponderous” (1:1:73) love of a young heir, furthermore acting as“the true blank of thine eye” (1:1:153) for his decrepit King. Kent brings the hope for justice to a